of (^ttcktti (Pacfau^. 




Class . 1 , 

Book . (^^^y^S ' 
Copyright N° , 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



^ 



of (^ttcient {pac^au^. 



AN HISTORICAL PAPER PREPARED 
BY DANIEL L. PHILLIPS, GRISWOLD, 
CONN., AND READ BY HIM AT THE 
UNVEILING OF A MONUMENT TO THE 
MEMORY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY 
MARTYRS OF ANCIENT PACHAUG, 
MEMORIAL DAY, 1903. 



THE L:bRARy OF 
CONGRtSS, 

Two Copies Received 

Jl'M 3 1903 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS ^ XXc. No. 

L b (^ ') 
I COPY 8. _ I 



Copyright, 1903 

BY 

Daniel L. Phillips. 



-e^C"* 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MARTYRS 
OF ANCIENT PACHAUG. 



Six years ago the knowledge of local history in the town 
of Griswold was confined largely to traditions, more or less 
correct, in the minds of a few persons of historical tastes. 
At that time the Anne Brewster Fanning Chapter, Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution, was established. This 
organization has encouraged and popularized historical 
investigation, and used its influence to put into permanent 
form whatever of value has been discovered in our local 
annals. By its works, it is continually saying to every citi- 
zen of Griswold, and with a peculiar emphasis on this 
Memorial day, "The ground on which you are standing is 
historic, and in a large sense holy ground." 

One discovery of these years is a list of the names of 
seventeen men, soldiers of the war of the Revolution, from 
the parish of Ancient Pachaug, North Preston, now the town 
of Griswold. These men died in the service, and this list is 
an important addition to the State archives, as well as to 
local history. These names were found in the records of 
the parish church kept by the pastor, the Reverend Levi 
Hart, among the list of deaths for the years 1775- 1783, and 
the manner of this record is as follows : 

1776 Aug. 17 Solomon Coit in ye army. 
Rouse Bly slain in battle. 
Caleb Green in captivity. 
Lester Stanton in ye army. 
Elijah Rose in captivity. 
Roger Billings in captivity about this time. 
Joab Burton in ye Continental army about this time. 
Dr. Eben'' Robison in captivity at New York. 
Jonathan Belcher in captivity at New York. 







27 




Oct. 


23 




Nov. 


24 


1777 


Feb'-y 


9 


1778 


Aug. 


29 


1779 


July 


4 


I78I 


Jan. 


8 



1781 Jan. 29 Woodbury Starkweather on his return from captivity. 
July John Benjamin Jr. slain by the enemy near New York. 
Sept. 6 John Billings Jr. slain by the enemy at Groton Fort. 

■' ' ^ [■ in captivity at New York. 

George Austin ) 

Dec. Peleg Billings & Guile in the army. 

1782 Feb. Bond in yc army. 

The following is a brief account of their lineage and their 
lives : 

Solomon Coit. The Preston Coits, to which family he 
belonged, were of much importance in the town and county 
in which they lived. The founder of this family was Samuel, 
son of Reverend Joseph Coit of Plainfield, who settled in 
the northern part of the town of Preston as early as 1738, 
and became a leading citizen of his adopted town. A veteran 
of the colonial wars, a colonel in active service of the colony 
troops, at the opening of the war of the Revolution he was 
first in rank and influence in this section of the colony. His 
advanced age, however, 67 years, would not permit active 
field service, and in 1776 he resigned, and Captain John 
Tyler, afterwards Brigadier General John Tyler of this 
parish, was appointed in his place. Twelve sons and grand- 
sons of this old veteran served in the war of the Revolution ; 
among them his grandson Solomon, the subject of this 
sketch, son of Samuel Coit, Jr., and his wife Mercy Clark. 
He was born January 21, 1759, and was, therefore, a boy of 
sixteen at the beginning of the war. His home was in the 
neighborhood of what is now the Griswold town farm, near 
where the Coits first settled. His name is not found on 
any State rolls or lists. It is only by the entry in the records 
of his parish already given, that we know this young lad was 
the first from ancient Pachaug to give his life for his country. 

Rouse Bly. No record of the family or birth of this man 
has been found. Even the family name seldom appears in 
any records in Eastern Connecticut. In the Rhode Island 
records, however, it is frequently seen, and it is probable that 
Rouse Bly was one of the pioneers of the immigration of 



— 5— 

Rhode Islanders to this section. This immigration reached 
its height during the first half of the nineteenth century, and 
contributed very largely to the prosperity of Griswold. His 
military record is as follows : A private from Preston in the 
Lexington alarm, a private in Captain John Tyler's com- 
pany, Colonel Parsons' regiment, at the siege of Boston 
1775, and a sergeant in Captain Percival's company, Colonel 
Huntington's regiment, in the campaign around New York 
in 1776. In this regiment Pachaug was largely represented. 
He fought in the disastrous battle of Long Island, where 
he was killed — a kinder fate than awaited many of his 
companions, who went into captivity. 

Caleb Green, the oldest son of Winter and Borrodil 
(Rennet) Green, was born October 28, 1757. His home 
was the ancestral farm at Spy Rock, a hill about half a mile 
northeast of Hopeville, and the highest point of land in the 
vicinity. Nature has faced the east side of this hill with a 
perpendicular wall of rock many feet in height, and dim 
traditions of high tragedy enacted here, in the early days, 
cluster around it. On the top of the hill, almost hidden by 
a thicket of trees and briars, is a group of graves of a for- 
gotten generation. One monument, the best preserved, bears 
the name of Winter Green. 

Winter Green, the father of Caleb Green, was the son 
of John Green, whose father William bought land and 
settled here in 1709. His mother, Borrodil Bennet, was the 
daughter of William and Elizabeth (Green) Bennet, whose 
home was near Spy Rock. Caleb Green was enrolled in 
Colonel Huntington's regiment of continental troops, which 
served under Washington in the campaign around New 
York in 1776. His regiment fought in the battle of Long 
Island, shared in the defeat, and lost heavily in prisoners, 
who were barbarously penned up by their captors in churches 
and on shipboard. Among the captives was Caleb Green, 
who, after two months of torture, died October 23, 1776. 
He was the first of our martyrs to die in captivity. 



Lester Stanton, the son of Robert and Mary (Lester) 
Stanton, was born June 25, 1742. The home of his parents, 
where he is supposed to have spent his early years, was 
between what is now the John Graves farm and the farm 
of Kingsley Chapman in the south part of Griswold. 

His father was a descendant of Captain John Stanton of 
Narragansett war fame, who gave one-half his vast estate in 
the Pachaug country to his son John. According to tradition, 
he aided the speedy settlement of the country, by disposing 
of farms to actual settlers on surprising terms — to one, on 
condition of his being a good neighbor ; to another, for the 
consideration of a plow clevis and pin. He also, it is said, 
gave a farm to each of his seven sons, of whom Robert 
Stanton was one. The mother of Lester Stanton was Mary, 
daughter of Andrew Lester, the first of the name in Pachaug, 
whose wife was the daughter of John Starkweather and sis- 
ter of the mother of Robert Stanton. 

All the known war record of Lester Stanton is contained 
in that line in the records of his parish, already quoted, 
which makes mention of his death. He married August 6, 
1772, Margaret Benjamin, the sister of John Benjamin, Jr., 
his fellow martyr. The graves of his parents and many of 
the Stanton line are to be found in the Leonard burying 
ground. 

Elijah Rose. In the Geer burial ground, on the farm 
of Samuel Norman, are to be found many old monuments 
marked with the name of Rose. At the time of the war of 
the Revolution, the Rose family was numerous and well-to- 
do, but the name has not been known in Griswold for many 
years. About one hundred years ago the old Rose farm was 
sold to the ancestor of the Geer family, and has descended 
to Samuel Norman. Thomas Rose, the father of Elijah, 
married Sarah Harris of Plainfield-in 1742. They resided 
in Norwich, where their children were born and reared. 
His farm of two hundred acres joined the old Rose farm, 
and was in that part of Norwich east of the Quinnebaug 



river which, in 1786, was set off to the town of Preston. 
This farm was the site of what is known in our day as 
Ashland village, in Jewett City. For many years, before 
this territory belonged to Preston, it was a part of the 
Second Ecclesiastical Society of that town, and in this way 
Elijah Rose became a son of ancient Pachaug. He was 
born July 26, 1757. His father's house must have stood 
not far above the site of the old Ashland mill. Of his 
military record, we only know that he belonged to Captain 
Percival's company of Colonel Huntington's regiment, that 
he was taken prisoner at the battle of Long Island August 
27, 1776, and died after languishing in captivity three 
months. 

JoAB Burton. The Burtons came from Salem, Massa- 
chusetts and were there in witchcraft times. Many families 
from Salem and the adjoining towns had already fled from 
the troubled conditions which superstition had engendered, 
to the quiet of Pachaug when, in 1709, Jacob Burton bought 
land which is still in possession of his descendants, and 
settled here. His wife Judith was a constituent member of 
the Pachaug church, and his son Israel was among the first 
children baptized after its organization. Israel Burton mar- 
ried Silence Herrick, and Joab Burton, born about 1755, 
was their son. The home of Israel Burton at the time of 
his death, and for years before, was the house which stands 
a little off the road near the Burton school house. A pretty 
pond lies near it, and a noble pine tree stands sentinel 
beside it. The house itself has been vacant for many years, 
and will not stand much longer. In this house, it is sup- 
posed, Joab Burton passed some years of his life. His first 
recorded military service was at the siege of Boston 1775, 
where he was a private in Colonel Parsons' regiment, in 
which were so many of his neighbors. In 1777, he enlisted 
in the First regiment, Connecticut Line. His regiment 
joined Washington's army in Pennsylvania in September, 
1777, fought in the battle of Germantown October 4, endured 



— 8— 

the sufferings of Valley Forge 1777-78, and was present 
at the battle of Monmouth, June 28. His death occurred 
two months after, and is recorded in the army rolls as well 
as on the records of his parish. 

Dr. Ebenr. Robinson. Besides the entry of his death, 
there is nothing in town or church records or tradition, 
here, that sheds light on this man's history, but in Plainfield 
we find some clues. In the records of the old church, in 
that town, is this entry : "Dr. Eben^ Robinson, Jr., died at 
New York, July, 1779, a prisoner." It is so like our own 
record that it must mean the same man. Other facts, from 
Plainfield town and probate records, and private sources, 
furnish circumstantial evidence from which his story is 
pieced out. He was born, probably, in Plainfield, between 
1750 and 1755, the child of Dr. Ebenezer Robinson, a 
physician and landowner of that town, and Mary Bennet 
his wife, and when grown, adopted the profession of his 
father. He naturally came to this parish, for the Bennets 
and Greens of Spy Rock were his cousins. In June, 1776, 
he enlisted in Colonel Sage's battalion, Wadsworth's bri- 
gade, in a company whose captain was John Dixon of 
Voluntown, and whose first lieutenant was William Edmond 
of Preston. This battalion reinforced Washington in New 
York, served in Long Island, suffered some loss in the 
retreat from New York September 15, and was in the battle 
of White Plains, October 28. No other record of him is 
found until three years later, when he is registered as sur- 
geon's mate on the pay list of the ship Oliver Cromwell, a 
State man of war, which had been in commission since the 
summer of 1776, and had been most successful in her cruises 
against the enemy. The period of his service included the 
last successful cruise of this ship, which, after being out 
twelve days, returned with four prizes — two of them vessels 
of ten guns each — with sixty prisoners. He was on this ship 
in her last fight on June 5th, 1779, when she met the British 
frigate Daphne. After a battle of two hours, her mainmast 



— 9— 

shot away and another vessel having come to the assistance 
of the enemy, she surrendered. Her crew was taken into 
captivity on board the prison ships Jersey and Good Hope 
in New York harbor. In August of that same year, the 
captain and crew were exchanged. Ebenezer Robinson, how- 
ever, who had been placed on the Jersey, called "The Old 
Hell," on account of the peculiar horrors undergone by her 
victims, was unable to endure the hardships of his confine- 
ment, and had died a month before the exchange. 

Jonathan Belcher, the oldest son of Moses and Esther 
(Rudd) Belcher, was born April 21, 1760. The Belchers 
date back in our history to 1717, when Moses Belcher of 
Milton, Mass., bought a large tract of land near what is 
now Hopeville, and settled there with his two sons, William 
and Elijah. He was a constituent member of the Pachaug 
church and one of its first deacons. His descendants were 
prominent in all the afifairs of the community. His son 
William was ancestor of Captain Wm. Belcher of Revolu- 
tionary war fame. His son Elijah, for many years deacon 
of the Pachaug church, was the grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch. 

Besides the parish record already referred to, little is 
known about Jonathan Belcher. His father's farm and 
his early home adjoined that of his grandfather, and must 
have been near what is now the residence of Dr. Byron 
Sweet. After the record of his birth in the Preston vital 
statistics is this entry : "The above named Jonathan Belcher 
died in New York Jan. 5th, 1781." It is possible that the 
John Belcher of Preston, who was lieutenant in Nathan 
Hale's company, in Colonel Webb's regiment, Connecticut 
Line, 1775, and who re-entered the service in 1776, and 
whose name is in the list of prisoners on board the Jersey 
prison ship, was this same man, since John was sometimes 
used as a contraction of Jonathan. Otherwise, there is no 
record of his service nor of the manner of his captivity. 

Woodbury Starkweather, son of John Starkweather 
of Stonington and his wife Elizabeth Belcher of Pachaug, 



was born in Stonington, February ii, 1757. Through the 
Starkweathers he was related to Lester Stanton. His 
mother and the father of Jonathan Belcher were both children 
of Dea. Elijah Belcher. John Starkweather died some years 
before the war of the Revolution, and his widow returned 
to Pachaug with her children. In 1776, Belcher Stark- 
weather, the oldest son, who is still remembered by one of 
our old citizens, served as a soldier in the campaign around 
New York. In 1777 he was appointed guardian of his 
brothers, Woodbury and Amos, and his sister Elizabeth, who 
were all minors. The same year the names of Woodbury 
and Amos appear in the rolls of Colonel Latimer's regiment 
of militia, and their term of service shows that they shared 
the danger and glory of the battle of Saratoga, and saw 
the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1778 the name of Corporal 
Woodbury Starkweather appears on a petition from Colonel 
McClellan's regiment of militia to the General Assembly for 
increase of pay, because of the enormous rise in price of the 
necessaries of life. There is no record of his further ser- 
vice, save the bare fact that he was a prisoner on the Jersey 
prison ship, and the entiw on the records of his parish. He 
left a widow, Elizabeth, but there is no mention of children. 
His body probably rests in our soil, but his grave is 
unmarked and unknown. A monument in the Leonard 
cemetery to Woodbury Starkweather, son of Belcher Stark- 
weather, shows that his brother and guardian held him in 
honored and loving remembrance. 

John Benjamin, Jr., son of John Benjamin of Preston 
and his wife Margaret Jamison of Stonington, was born 
on Christmas day 175 1. His home was the ancestral farm 
where generations of Benjamins had lived. It now belongs 
to the farm lately owned by George N. Holmes, just south 
of the Pachaug store. This farm also includes the birth- 
place of George D. Prentice, Gris wold's greatest genius. 
The first Benjamin bought land here in 1696. In 1730 it 
is mentioned, in the records, as near the new meeting-house 



— II — 

in Preston. In 1762 a road was laid out from the south 
end of the society, commencing at a farm called then and 
now the "Billings farm," and running northerly to the south 
door of the meeting-house. The last landmark, next the 
meeting-house, that indicated the course of this road was 
the house of John Benjamin. Again in 1770 John Ben- 
jamin's farm was the south bound of the Pachaug school 
district. It went out of the Benjamin name about 1800. 
John Benjamin, Jr., the soldier, entered the army in 1775 and 
served with his neighbors at the siege of Boston. His name 
next appears, in 1778, on the petition of Colonel McClellan's 
regiment already mentioned. In 1781 he belonged to Gen- 
eral Waterbury's brigade of state militia organized for coast 
defense between New Haven and New York, and was killed 
near Horseneck June 24th of the same year. On May 11, 
1775, he married Lovisa Palmer of Stonington, and several 
children were born to them. 

Benajah Tracy was the son of Benajah Tracy of Pres- 
ton and Hannah Safiford of Norwich, and a direct descend- 
ant of Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, one of the original settlers 
of Norwich, through his son Thomas, who was one of the 
petitioners for the incorporation of Preston in 1686. 
Nathaniel, the son of the second Thomas, and grandfather 
of our Benajah, had among his large possessions a farm 
on Stone Hill, in North Preston, which he willed to his 
grandson Benajah. It is by this will, and the kindness of 
Dr. Dwight Tracy of New York City, that we trace his 
lineage. There is no record of his birth, which probably 
occurred about 1739 or 40. He was by trade a surveyor 
and joiner. His first military experience was in the French 
war, when in 1758 his name appears in the pay roll of 
Colonel Samuel Coit's company, Second regiment, Connecti- 
cut troops, in which were many Pachaug men. In 1774, he 
deeded the farm, willed him by his grandfather, to Jabez 
Averill. It remained in possession of the Averills until a 
few years ago, and is still known as the Averill farm. The 



— 12 — 

first record of his service in the war of the Revolution 
is in 1777 with Gates, in the campaign against Burgoyne 
in the same regiment with Woodbury Starkweather and 
others of his neighbors. Again in 1779 he was an eight 
months' man in the Second regiment, Connecticut Line. 
On July 7th, 1780, he enlisted in the Seventh regiment, 
Connecticut Line, and was discharged Dec. 3d, of the same 
year. When he was taken captive, or where he died, is not 
known. He married, July i, 1762, Lucy, daughter of 
Robert Herrick of Preston. Ten children were born to 
them. 

George Austin. On the south side of the Fifth school 
district, near Pachaug Plain, lived at the beginning of the 
war Ben Austin, his wife Susannah, and their eight children, 
the oldest probably not more than fourteen years of age. 
Before the close of the war the father and four sons were 
enrolled in their country's service. The first recorded ser- 
vice of George, the oldest son, is contained in a travel 
abstract of Captain Benjamin Bacon's company of the 
Twenty-first militia, commanded by Colonel Douglass of 
Plainfield late in 1776, when, in response to an earnest call 
for troops, from Washington, in New York, forced marches, 
quickened by offers of reward, were made, from the mustering 
place to the scene of action. In the record, George Austin 
is credited with having marched two hundred and ninety- 
five miles. In 1778, he signed the petition already men- 
tioned, of Colonel McClellan's regiment, to which he be- 
longed. There is no further account of him until three 
years later, when in the records of his parish is found the 
date and manner of his death. 

Roger Billings, John Billings, Jr., and Peleg Billings 
were descendants of Captain Roger Billings, a notable man 
in his day, whose home, known in our day as the Clark 
Saunders place, about a mile south of Glasgo, was the north 
part of that large Billings tract which in early times 
extended southerlv almost to North Stoninsfton village. 



—13— 

This farm came to him from his father, WilHam BiUings 
of Preston, who was the son of that WilHam BilUngs who 
came from England and settled in Stonington at a very 
early date. Active in civil affairs. Captain Roger Billings 
filled important offices in his parish and town. In military 
affairs he was well known. He had been a commissioned 
officer for thirty years. At least three times, during the 
Colonial wars, he was a leader of the men of Pachaug in 
expeditions against Canada. His last military service was 
in 1775 at the time of the Lexington alarm, when, although 
sixty-seven years of age, he appeared at the head of his 
company and marched for the relief of Boston. Of the 
goodly number of his sons and grandsons who devoted them- 
selves to their country's service, three gave their lives. The 
first was Roger, his grandson and namesake. Roger Bil- 
lings was born April 6th, 1759, the child of John Billings 
and Eunice Gallup of Stonington. The home of his boy- 
hood was near his grandfather's farm. His first service in 
the war was in 1775 in Captain Mott's company of Colonel 
Parsons' regiment. This company was ordered to the 
Northern Department under Schuyler, whose object was to 
secure possession of Lakes George and Champlain, and to 
invade Canada, while the rest of the regiment took part in 
the siege of Boston. 

In 1776 he served in Durkee's regiment of Continental 
troops. About Sept. ist, he joined a small body of select 
troops just organized called Knowlton's Rangers, famous 
fighters, who in an engagement just after the retreat of 
the American army from New York, so gallantly drove back 
the enemy that new courage and hope came to the dejected 
and disheartened Americans. At the urgent entreaty of 
the commander of Fort Washington, the Rangers were 
assigned to that post and were surrendered with the rest of 
the garrison Nov. i6th, 1776. It is said that the prisoners 
taken at Fort Washington were treated with great cruelty. 
Roger Billings endured the horrors of his captivity for some 
months, before death came to his relief. 



—14— 

John Billings, Jr., son of John and brother of Roger, was 
born Oct. 4th, 1761. His name first appears in the list 
of names of Colonel McClellan's regiment in 1778, among 
others of his parish. Nowhere else in lists or rolls is men- 
tion made of him until the memorable 6th of September, 
1 78 1, the date of the battle of Grot on Heights. Then, for 
the first time during the war, the sound of battle was heard 
in Pachaug, and the smoke of a burning town, fired by 
the enemy, was seen from her hills. Misled by the enemy's 
guns which confused our signals, the men of this parish 
were too late for the most part to engage in the conflict. 
A few, however, were there, and among them Roger Bil- 
lings. The part he took in that day's doings is not known, 
but in the list of killed his name appears. On the monument 
erected forty-nine years afterwards "To the memory of the 
brave patriots who fell in the massacre at Fort Griswold," 
is the name of John Billings, the only one of all our martyrs 
whose sacrifice has, hitherto, been publicly recognized. 

Peleg Billings, son of Captain Roger Billings, was born 
June 26th, 1738. At the breaking out of the war of the 
Revolution, he was already a veteran soldier. For, at the 
age of seventeen, during the French war, he enlisted in his 
father's company and served a campaign in Canada, 

In 1775 he served in the Northern Department under 
Schuyler in the same company as his nephew Roger. In 
1777, with Woodbury Starkweather, Benajah Tracy and 
others of his neighbors, he fought at Saratoga and saw the 
surrender of Burgoyne. In 1778 he enlisted in the Third 
regiment Connecticut Line, and served from March 20th of 
that year to January ist, 1779. Of his further service, or 
the manner of his death, nothing is known save what is 
already given in the parish records. He married Mary 
Stanton, probably sister of Lester Stanton. Four children 
were born to them. 

Guile and Bond were the last to give their 

lives. Of them nothing is known, save what is already 
given. 



—15— 

At a town meeting held in Preston, August 27, 1770, 
Deacon Nathaniel Brown of Pachaug presiding, to consider 
the difficulties under which this town and all America labors 
at this time, this high principle was laid down, that "it is 
the duty of every man who wishes well to his posterity to 
lend a hand to save his country from ruin." How well the 
men of Pachaug lived up to this high principle is something 
to remember. Out of the thousand souls contained in the 
parish, not far from the present population of Griswold, 
exclusive of its villages, probably not less than one hundred 
and fifty men engaged in their country's service. Of these 
about one hundred have been identified. The remainder 
are unnamed and unknown. 

The missing records, our last two martyrs who are known 
only by the fragments of their names, bring into high relief 
the service of the half hundred men from ancient Pachaug 
whose very names have been forgotten. And we honor, on 
this occasion, not only these seventeen martyrs, but all who 
with them, from this ancient parish, devoted themselves to 
establish and preserve the principles of a free government 
for the sake of posterity. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




